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Narcocorrido:

A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas
Front Cover
6 Reviews
HarperCollins, Oct 22, 2002 - Music - 368 pages

In the first full-length exploration of the contemporary and controversial Mexican corrido, award-winning author Elijah Wald blends a travel narrative with his search for the roots of this genre -- a modern outlaw music that fuses the sensibilities of medieval ballads with the edgy grit of gangsta rap.

From international superstars to rural singers documenting their local current events in the regions dominated by guerilla war, Wald visited these songwriters in their homes, exploring the heartland of the Mexican drug traffic and traveling to urban centers such as Los Angeles and Mexico City. The corrido genre is famous for its hard-bitten songs of drug traffickers and gunfights, and also functions as a sort of musical newspaper, singing of government corruption, the lives of immigrants in the United States, and the battles of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas. Though largely unknown to English speakers, corridos top the Latin charts and dominate radio playlists both in the United States and points south. Wald provides in-depth looks at the songwriters who have transformed groups like the popular Tigres del Norte into enduring superstars, as well as the younger artists who are carrying the corrido into the twenty-first century. In searching for the poetry and social protest behind the gaudy lyrics of powerful drug lords, Wald shows how popular music can remain the voice of a people, even in this modern world of globalization, electronic media, and gangsters who ship cocaine in 747s.

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Review: Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas

User Review  - Brandon - Goodreads

Quite a travelog. Wald goes all over Mexico and even makes forays into California and Texas to talk with corridistas and in particular those who've written about the drug business. Because the corrido ... Read full review

Review: Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas

User Review  - Clay - Goodreads

Not much of a stylist, but he gets the facts straight. A little too much of a journalistic nod to Hunter S. Thompson. Read full review

All 6 reviews »

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References from web pages

popmatters Music Feature | Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music ...
NARCOCORRIDO: A JOURNEY INTO THE MUSIC OF DRUGS, GUNS, AND GUERRILLAS by Elijah Wald harperscollins Rayo November 2001 ...
www.popmatters.com/ music/ features/ 020504-cinco3.shtml

Narcocorrido, book on corridos, Mexican drug ballads, by Elijah Wald
Detailed description of this book about the corrido music style, and the Mexican culture
www.elijahwald.com/ corrido.html

Help me find some good narcocorrido music! | Ask Metafilter
Help me find some good narcocorrido music! March 31, 2006 4:54 PM RSS feed for this thread Subscribe. Do you have any recommendations for narcocorrido ...
ask.metafilter.com/ 35485/ Help-me-find-some-good-narcocorrido-music

the PUERTO VALLARTA SCENE » Narcocorrido Musicians killed
... court poets for the drug world,” said Elijah Wald, author of the book “Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas.” ...
www.pvscene.com/ ?p=696

Shock! Horror! Narcocorrido! - articles
Shock! Horror! Narcocorrido! By. Robert Christgau. EMP 2008 has been one of the most engrossing and exhausting ever, but Elijah Wald's presentation was so ...
www.najp.org/ articles/ 2008/ 04/ shock-horror-narcocorrido.html

Music and Culture: Narcocorrido band Explosion Norteño
Elijah Wald, author of the book “Narcocorrido: A Journey Into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas,” said some narcocorridos require approval from drug ...
musicandculture.blogspot.com/ 2007/ 01/ narcocorrido-band-explosion-norteo.html

pov - Al Otro Lado . El Valiente: Chalino Sanchez | PBS
Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas. Available in both English and Spanish from Rayo, an imprint of Harper Collins ...
www.pbs.org/ pov/ pov2006/ alotrolado/ special_narcorridos.html

Narcocorrido - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. A narcocorrido is a kind of Mexican music which evolved out of the norteño folk corrido ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Narcocorrido

elijah wald interview 5/13/02
Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerillas. Interview with author Elijah Wald by Root Doctor. RD: Could you tell us how the world ...
www.murderdog.com/ archives/ corridos/ corridos.html

Pancordia: Narcocorrido
This page supports Elijah Wald's book, Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas. The page includes links to much more ...
ookworld.com/ pancordia/ archives/ 000057.html

About the author (2002)

Elijah Wald es escritor y mÚsico con veinte aÑos de experiencia reportando sobre los orÍgenes musicales y sobre la mÚsica misma en diferentes regiones del mundo. Fue escritor y asesor para el proyecto de mÚltiples medios del Instituto Smithsonian llamado The Mississippi: River and Song (El RÍo Mississippi: el rÍo y su mÚsica), y tambiÉn recibiÓ un premio por la biografÍa Josh White: Society Blues (Josh White, Blues de la Sociedad). Una sobrevista de su obra se puede conseguir en elijawald.com.

Elijah Wald is a writer and musician with twenty years experience covering roots and world music. He was writer and consultant on the Smithsonian multimedia project The Mississippi: River of Song, and is the author of the award-winning biography Josh White: Society Blues.

Bibliographic information